POMONA – As a 14-time national drag racing champion and the winner of a record 122 Funny Car meets, John Force knows big.

Enough to know it is no longer him.

“Selling . . . it's a tough sell,” Force said recently when discussing how he finds sponsors to support the four-car Funny Car team he owns and leads.

“But with her, it was different. Sponsors stepped right up and said, 'We want to be on her car.' That's when I knew.”

“Her” is Ashley Force, the 24-year-old heiress to the Force empire. And what her father knows is that his daughter has a chance to take drag racing to another level.

Today, weather permitting, Ashley Force makes her professional debut in the 61st Winternationals – the opener to the National Hot Rod Association's 23-event season.

She qualified 15th for the 16-car field with a quarter-mile dash of 4.79 seconds with a top speed of 312.42 mph.

In a strange twist, Ashley's professional debut – shortly after 11 a.m. – will come against a teammate, Robert Hight. Not only was Hight the national points runner-up to her father last season, he is Ashley's brother-in-law.

But that wasn't the most dramatic part of the final minutes of qualifying.

As John Force staged for his last of four qualifying passes, he was not in the field. And Ashley was sitting in the bump position at No. 16.

John Force, who admits to being preoccupied with his daughter's fortunes, jumped into the No. 4 spot with a 4.709-second run (326.40 mph) that knocked his daughter from the field.

Moments later, Ashley made the run that moved her into the No. 15 slot.

“I don't know how much more story you can pile on,” said the senior Force. “All I can say is I'm proud to be her father.”

Shirley Muldowney won the last of her three Top Fuel titles weeks before Ashley was born in 1982. Melanie Troxel won two Top Fuel events and placed fourth in the final standings last year. Angelle Sampey has won 40 NHRA events and three championships in the motorcycle division.

But Ashley is the first woman to drive an 8,000-horsepower Funny Car since 2000. Only 10 women have ever competed in the class. None has ever won an event or paced qualifying.

And no woman in drag racing has ever been named Force – not that she was able to take many shortcuts.

Ashley Force spent six years in the minor leagues of drag racing – Super Comp and Top Alcohol Dragster – waiting for her chance. And before she got the keys to Daddy's car, she spent almost a full season of testing far away from public scrutiny.

“I've done all I can do,” said John Force during the official announcement four weeks ago that Ashley was taking her much-anticipated step into the Funny Car ranks. “Now it is up to her.”

But Ashley Force is far from alone.

She is backed by most of her dad's sponsors. In fact, she has become the top priority in many of those sponsors' eyes.

And last year Ashley Force was a supporting member of the cast in the A&E reality series “Driving Force,” which charted the 57-year-old icon's course through both his record-setting career and coping with raising four daughters.

“Driving Force” has been renewed for a second season. But this year the focus apparently will be on Ashley's rookie season as her father's employee and teammate.

“I can see the handwriting on the wall,” said the patriarch. “It has my name on it. Well, half my name.”